I felt the same way.

Although I'm Platinum right now, perhaps I will drop to Gold next year. It'll be a whole different world.

Then IF CO raise the Platinum threashold to align with UA (I hope not), I'll be just "OnePass Members" forever...:(

Why? :confused:

Can you share your logic please?

We fly more...and with the much higher fares of late, we pay more too. That's enough pain, thanks.

Aaaaghhhh, Ooohhhh the pain!! the effin' Pain!!!!:mad:

Plats have the same co-pays on BF upgrades.

There we go. Shared pain. Next? :)

Starwood Amex?

It would be nice if that mirroring would include free date/time changes (but not routing changes) to match UA's award ticket policy.

I didn't mind paying $50-$75 to do a date change, but $150?

Just a question: Will any of this go away as soon as the industry stabilizes itself?

It's actually quite easy to see the impact. AA contract employees are turning people away from the security line and making them check bags.

Travel around Thanksgiving isn't a typical example of challenges a carrier might face. If there were problems on, say December 25th, then I might be concerned about the issue.

Actually it's quite difficult to see the impact on the bin space from first checked bag fees as most persons that are likely impacted by such changes are not yet subject to the rules which charge a fee for the first checked bag -- most leisure travellers who have flown between June and now are not subject to a checked bag fee for their first bag because their tickets were purchased before June 15th.

What happens to the bin space on flights around Christmas would be even more telling than around Thanksgiving, yes -- tickets for those flights are even more likely to be subjected to a first checked bag fee since they are even more likely to have been purchased on or after June 15th.

I've been doing this as long as I've been collecting FF miles. I've always found that (for personal travel, and this is what all these miles/pts are for right) I spend more on lodging than actual airfare.. although that gap is now closing with the drastic increases in costs (I didn't say airfare specifically b/c the fees which are becoming a large part of cost are increasing so much and so fast) and with the down turn, I anticipate a slowing, leveling or in certain instances a dropping of hotel rates as a whole. I've managed myself to collecting status/pts in the big four chains and its paying off big time.. one example is I just booked the Westin in Calgary for the Stampede in 09 for 60K (7 nights) and the lowest rate was $489 CAD.. by my estimates this will save me close to $3500 CAD.. I will not spend close to that in airfare.

Finally someone admits it.. a $30 fare increase.. but how stupid do they (the industry) think even ma and pa kettle are.. even the typical once a year traveler knows what $15X2 comes out too

Likewise, my DL went from 800,000+ to 33 miles.. man I couldn't have timed it any closer.. CO from 1M to 72K.. and if I had another 3K that would have been reduced a long time ago

Ditto.. insulting to me though in that they think that pax are too stupid to realize that a $300 transcon as listed on websites is really a $300 fare.. as stated above, even Ma & Pa kettle know what $15X2 is.. and can even multiply it by the fleet of Billy Bobs, Bobby joes traveling with them

1. thats b/c as EXP you are riding up front or at worst boarding first in Y.. its never going to be an issue for you

2. it hasn't even come close to peaking yet from a timing perspective

I agree.. Thanksgiving/Xmas.. will be bad.. I agree.. it should be nasty by then

I'm not really disagreeing (or agreeing) but I'd like to know why you say this

maybe so, but not for a long time. Everyone knows that temp fees/taxes etc.. never really go away, companies/gov'ts hang on to them as long as possible just to fill the coffers even when no longer needed.. eventually in a long enough booming economy, the market forces will make someone reduce/eliminate the fees/surcharges and then others will follow or go plus 1.. but in our foreseeable future.. no way.. even if Oil drops by 50%

Oh come on, there are plenty of kettles out there that don't know $15x2=$30.

I have to look into it a bit better. Since Hyatt doesn't have a co-branded card, and that's where I have status, I'll have to look for another program that will be a good backup when a Hyatt isn't around. Starwood seems like a good candidate, but I thought it's big benefit was the ability to transfer 20k points into 25k miles. The goal is NOT to get miles :)

I may just do cash back. I certainly spend enough :)

The 20k SPG points for 25k miles isn't the most valuable option out there for SPG points, but it's good enough for plenty of people who do use it. However, for me, the big benefit with hotel point credit cards is that the hotel points are useful for hotel stays -- in SPG's case this includes free hotel stays at some rather expensive hotel properties. I use my SPG points mostly for hotel stays, "nights & flights" redemption options, or to top off my airline accounts for flight redemption purposes, all of which seem to provide me on average a better return than cards marketed as cash back cards.